As is well known, eyeglass retainers typically in the form of a neck strap affixed to the temple members of a pair of eyeglasses are commonly used wherein the neck strap is typically worn over the back of the wearer's neck, thereby serving to prevent the loss or damage of the eyeglasses. Heretofore the construction and materials used in the neck strap portion of such prior art devices has limited the capacity of the neck strap to elastically stretch along its length by only a small amount, or not at all, without breaking. Oftentimes, when the wearer engages in rigorous physical activity such as water skiing or surfing, the eyeglasses can be jarred or otherwise pulled away from the wearer, in which case these prior art devices will often break due to applied tension against the wearer's neck, sometimes resulting in loss or damage to the eyeglasses, or even occasional injury to the wearer. A few prior art devices alleviate this problem to a limited extent. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,804 issued to Lawrence, an eyeglass neck strap is formed from a synthetic resinous material having a durometer value ranging from 65 to 85 for the purpose of improving durability and ease of attachment. While the elastic properties of this device somewhat alleviate the breakage and safety problems noted above, it has been found that an eyeglass retaining device having greater elastic resilience is needed to adequately avoid these problems, particularly when the wearer engages in vigorous physical activity.
Another limitation of many prior art eyeglass retaining devices is their lack of resistance to water damage. This particularly limits their use when the wearer engages in water sports. In view of the above noted durability and safety problems associated with these prior art devices, their exists a substantial need in the art for an eyeglass retaining device which has enhanced elastic stretchability and durability as well as greater resistance to water damage.